Integrate Google Sheets Data in Your Informatica Cloud Instance

Informatica Cloud allows you to perform extract, transform, and load (ETL) tasks in the cloud. With the Cloud Secure Agent and the CData JDBC Driver for Google Spreadsheets, you get live access to Google Sheets data, directly within Informatica Cloud. In this article, we will walk through downloading and registering the Cloud Secure Agent, connecting to Google Sheets through the JDBC Driver and generating a mapping that can be used in any Informatica Cloud process.

Informatica Cloud Secure Agent

To work with the Google Sheets data through the JDBC Driver, install the Cloud Secure Agent.

1. Navigate to the Administrator page in Informatica Cloud
2. Select the Runtime Environments tab
3. Click "Download Secure Agent"
4. Make note of the Install Token
5. Run the installer on the client machine and register the Cloud Secure Agent with your username and install token

NOTE: It may take some time for all of the Cloud Secure Agent services to get up and running.

Connecting to the Google Sheets JDBC Driver

With the Cloud Secure Agent installed and running, you are ready to connect to Google Sheets through the JDBC Driver. Start by clicking the Connections tab and clicking New Connection. Fill in the following properties for the connection:

• Connection Name: Name your connection (i.e.: CData Google Sheets Connection)
• Type: Select "JDBC_IC (Informatica Cloud)"
• Runtime Environment: Select the runtime environment where you installed the Cloud Secure Agent
• JDBC Connection URL: Set this to the JDBC URL for Google Sheets. Your URL will look similar to the following:
  
  jdbc:googlesheets:Spreadsheet=MySheet;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

  You can connect to a spreadsheet by providing authentication to Google and then setting the Spreadsheet connection property to the name or feed link of the spreadsheet. If you want to view a list of information about the spreadsheets in your Google Drive, execute a query to the Spreadsheets view after you authenticate.

  ClientLogin (username/password authentication) has been officially deprecated since April 20, 2012 and is now no longer available. Instead, use the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

  OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

  See the Getting Started chapter in the help documentation to connect to Google Sheets from different types of accounts: Google accounts, Google Apps accounts, and accounts using two-step verification.

  Built-In Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Google Sheets JDBC Driver. Either double-click the .jar file or execute the .jar file from the command-line.

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.googlesheets.jar

  Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

• JDBC Jar Directory: Set this to the lib folder in the installation location for the JDBC Driver (on Windows, typically C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\)
• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.googlesheets.GoogleSheetsDriver
• Username: Set this to a placeholder value (since Google Sheets does not require a username)
• Password: Set this to a placeholder value (since Google Sheets does not require a password)

Create a Mapping for Google Sheets Data

With the connection to Google Sheets configured, we can now access Google Sheets data in any Informatica process. The steps below walk through creating a mapping for Google Sheets to another data target.

1. Navigate to the Data Integration page
2. Click New.. and select Mapping from the Mappings tab
3. Click the Source Object and in the Source tab, select the Connection and set the Source Type
4. Click "Select" to choose the table to map
5. In the Fields tab, select the fields from the Google Sheets table to map
6. Click the Target object and configure the Target source, table and fields. In the Field Mapping tab, map the source fields to the target fields.

With the mapping configured, you are ready to start integrating live Google Sheets data with any of the supported connections in Informatica Cloud. Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Google Spreadsheets and start working with your live Google Sheets data in Informatica Cloud today.